COMMENT: More Work For the Legal People
It”s been a bad week for the air traveller and the industry suppliers, but a wonderful seven days for the lawyers. One thing for sure. The cost of flying will go up.
Two issues have dominated the airline headlines. Compensation (for delays and denied boarding) and the future growth of the London airports.
Let”s take the compensation issue first. The European Union has introduced new rights for air passengers including recompense for delays and denied boarding. The regulations have the force of law and apply to all commercial flights departing from or arriving at airports in EU countries. The regulations also apply to non-European airlines on flights leaving an EU airport.
On a point of principal it is right that damages be paid if a product (or service) does not perform as advised. If you buy a radio for ”50 and it does not work you would expect to get ”50 back. If your flight is delayed by more than two hours your entitlement could very quickly go over the ticket price, assuming it can be proved it is the airline”s fault. Is that fair?
And the nub of the whole thing. Who is to blame? What the legislators in Brussels and Strasbourg have significantly failed to recognise (presumably in both places and in every community language) is that a late aircraft is the last thing a carrier wants. The penalty of disruption to the system (in terms of aircraft and staffing) has already been paid. Delays are rarely an airline”s fault and more usually the combination of air traffic, airport congestions and problems associated with the apron. But to the passenger it appears it must be the airline.
IATA has mounted a legal challenge in the European Court of Justice, which is not expected to rule on the matter for about a year. The European Court declined a request to suspend the regulations in the interim. On the question of overbooking, the current system in place with the legacy carriers seems to have worked very well over the years. Why change it? In any event in the main the budget carriers do not overbook and so the problem does not arise with them.
If you decide to put in a claim for a delay and intend to engage a lawyer, who pays? Hopefully not legal aid. And if you lose who pays the airline”s costs?
Last week saw the publication of a judicial review of the situation regarding the expansion of London”s four main airports. It found that the Government has a sound basis for believing the second runway project at Stansted is commercially viable, and threw out a series of challenges to the policy of seeking ways to make best use of the capacity of Heathrow. The effect of the judgement was to re-affirm the White Paper as the long-term policy framework for UK aviation and Stansted as the site of the Southeast's next runway. However that airport”s expansion was likely to be delayed with BAA due to submit a planning application in spring 2006. Another little earner for the lawyers.
The planned expansion at Luton has been vindicated but an extension of the runway now needs a public enquiry. With new owners in place the delay might backfire on the protesters. It could be that they decide to explore the possibility of a second runway and with it the possible linking of the M1 and A1M and the two major rail routes north. It could be an attractive proposition for a government.
We will finish as we began. It”s been a bad week for the air traveller and the industry suppliers, but a wonderful seven days for the lawyers. One thing for sure. The cost of flying will go up.